Rep. Elijah Cummings said Thursday that President Trump invented a story about the Maryland Democrat canceling a scheduled meeting between the two.
“I have no idea why President Trump would make up a story about me like he did today,” he said in a statement.
“Of course, [Senate Minority Leader Charles] Schumer never told me to skip a meeting with the president,” he added.
The statement came shortly after President Trump said during a press conference that he had tried to set up a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus member, who backed out.
{mosads}“I was all set to have that meeting,” Trump said.
Cummings “was all excited and then he said, ‘Oh, I can’t move it. It might be bad for me politically. I can’t have that meeting.’”
“He was probably told by Schumer — or some other lightweight — ‘Don’t meet with Trump, it’s bad politics,'” the president said.
Cummings disputed Trump’s account and insisted he remains eager to discuss “the skyrocketing price of prescription drugs” with the president.
“My goal was to finalize our proposal to allow [the Department of Health and Human Services] to negotiate lower drug prices so I could present it to the president,” he said. “The president has said many times that he supports this proposal, so I wanted to have our bill ready to get his support.”
No meeting had been officially scheduled.
Cummings’s name came up at Trump’s presser after the president was asked if he’d involve the CBC in crafting his inner-city agenda, which seemed to surprise the Maryland lawmaker, a former CBC chairman.
“I also sincerely have no idea why the President made this claim in response to an unrelated question about the Congressional Black Caucus. I am sure members of the CBC can answer these questions for themselves,” he said.